Mexico City IECM councilors bid for INE presidency, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): Two councilors of the Mexico City Electoral Institute (IECM) and a former councilor are reportedly positioning themselves again to move up to the National Electoral Institute (INE), this time for the presidency, replacing Guadalupe Taddei.
According to the column, their strongest argument for the post, if not their only one, is that they believe Morena has not yet repaid what the opposition calls a favor: the granting of seven local deputies that allowed the party to reach a qualified majority in the Mexico City Congress after the 2024 elections.
The councilors named are Patricia Avendaño, president of the IECM; Sonia Pérez Pérez; and former councilor Bernando Valle. The PAN and PRI, as cited in the column, say Valle was the architect of an operation in which the registrations of seven Morena candidates who won majoritarian local seats were changed to appear as registered by the PVEM or PT.
According to the opposition, the changes were made in the early hours of the Saturday before a session scheduled to assign proportional seats, one week after the election. The aim, the column reports, was to reduce Morena’s district wins and therefore its entitlement to greater proportional representation.
Panistas and priístas described the episode as a “robbery.”
In October 2025, the two councilors and the former councilor also competed for INE posts, but none was selected. Avendaño scored 80/100 and Pérez scored 77/100, both below the required minimum.
Valle scored 99/100, but deputies conducting the selection raised doubts because he had been an adviser to the Secretariat of Governance and is a close associate of Iván Mendoza, technical secretary of the evaluation committee; he was eliminated over doubts about whether he obtained the exam in advance.
The column also notes that councilors Erika Estrada and Ernesto Ramos, Valle’s associate, sought INE posts in October 2025 but are not currently promoting themselves. Ramos scored 98/100 but did not reach the final round, in part because deputies considered he had committed fraud by registering as a “migrant” without meeting the criteria, and suspicions also arose about prior exam access.
Amid scandals surrounding Guadalupe Taddei at the INE, including salary austerity concerns, the column argues the Mexico City councilors lack the moral authority to seek the post. It reports that Avendaño has requested a 36% salary increase for 2027, which would bring her monthly net pay to 129,071 pesos, equal to her peers and well above Mexico City head of government Clara Brugada’s net monthly salary of 85,660 pesos.
The column concludes that the two councilors and the former councilor will likely keep waiting for the favor they believe Morena owes them. This is the opinion of the columnist, Martín Aguilar, and the report has not been independently verified.
